


You are an Artist, Your Heart is Your Masterpiece (and I'll Keep It Safe)

by taoslefteyelid



Category: EXO (Band), Z.Tao (Musician)
Genre: Anyways, Canon Compliant, Chivalry isn't dead, Date Night, Established Relationship, Flowers, Fluff, Lots of flowers, M/M, TaoHun - Freeform, There's no in between, YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST FOLKS, and declarations of love that are way too casual like seriously stop being so goddamn soft, bugak skyway, gross flirting, huang zitao is the best boyfriend ever, i want to tag the main thing but i don't wanna give it away so hmmmm, i'm treating these like my tumblr tags im sorry, it's a person named Huang Zitao, me drooling over the maserati because if you don't know i like cars, no like seriously zitao give me the maserati, non-au, sehun is either a brat or constantly flustered, seriously i'm not kidding i had no filter, seriously sehun drop your tips how do you get a zitao, sm gives them a day off, smh i should be studying, the one time sm does something right and it's in fanfic smh, these tags are a mess, title from "i'll keep you safe" by sleeping at last, unashamed and hellish fluff, you could view it as an au if you want though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-14
Updated: 2018-12-14
Packaged: 2019-09-18 07:05:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,383
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16990311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taoslefteyelid/pseuds/taoslefteyelid
Summary: SM should really give them more free time





	You are an Artist, Your Heart is Your Masterpiece (and I'll Keep It Safe)

**Author's Note:**

> this has got to be one of THE most fluffy fics I have ever written, so grab a cup of coffee and sit back and enjoy!

SM Entertainment isn’t really famous for giving their employees a day off.

So when they actually _do_ , said employees are stuck lounging around, not really knowing how to deal with this sudden, unexpected gift of free time.

 

Which is why Sehun finds himself sprawled across his bed, wide awake at six in the morning, whining about how bored he is to Zitao, who’s sitting at the desk in the corner of the room, hurriedly scribbling away on a piece of paper.

“-and it’s not like they had the decency to tell us yesterday! I mean, I’m happy for a break, but I thought we were following the same schedule we were given, and I woke up at 4 am, and now I can’t even go to sleep because I’d already had my morning coffee before I checked my texts! What am I even supposed to do?”

Zitao just hums, a hint of amusement flickering over his face. 

Sehun whines again, flopping over so he’s lying on his back, head slightly raised so he can squint at Zitao with all the annoyance he can muster.

“What are you even writing? C’mon, Zitao, do something.”

Zitao sets his pen down, and swivels in his chair, finally turning to Sehun.

“What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking you!”

“Okay, have you tried reading? Or playing a game on your phone or something?”

Sehun scoffs, letting his head fall back to hit the bed.

“I don’t _want_ to do any of that. If I’m going to be bored, you could at least spend some time with me. Tell me what you’re doing, I’ll help you out or something.”

“I doubt that tax returns would do much to placate your boredom, Hun-ah.”

Sehun groans, and Zitao bites back a smile.

“I could take you out to Bugak Skyway tonight and we could grab dinner, but we’d have to wait for like twelve hours for that.”

Sehun makes a noise of annoyance, and whips his head up to glare at Zitao.

“What do you mean _‘could’,_ today’s date night, idiot,” he hisses, as Zitao laughs at the look of indignation on his face. Sehun turns away, trying to keep up the pretence of anger a little longer.

“But, yeah, you’re right,” Sehun admits. “I wanna do something right now.”

Zitao stands up and stretches, yawning as his joints crack. 

“Aish, so demanding.”

“You know you love me.”

Zitao reaches over and pats Sehun’s cheek

“Never been a doubt.”

Before Sehun has time to blush, or whine about how _"you can’t just SAY stuff like that"_ , Zitao is pulling him up into a sitting position.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Sehun looks up at him and tilts his head, confused. “Where?”

“You were bored, right? I have an idea of something we can do, but I need to buy some stuff first. Go change into something comfortable.”

 

Sehun complies, and five minutes later, Zitao is pulling him down the stairs to where his car is parked.

He still can’t believe that Zitao bought a fucking Maserati, but at this point, he’s more smug about it than anything else. He may even love the car more than Zitao does, which, considering how careful Zitao is with it, is saying something.

Sehun doesn’t even bother reaching out to open the passenger side door, knowing that Zitao will beat him to it anyways, and happily presses a kiss to Zitao’s cheek as he enters the car. He watches Zitao make his way over to the other side, and smiles at him as he gets in. Zitao puts on his sunglasses, and turns to meet Sehun’s gaze.

“Seatbelt.”

Sehun slides in his seat in response, not bothering to listen, as Zitao starts the car.

The sun is already out by the time they’re on the road, and traffic isn’t that heavy, and Sehun isn’t that bored anymore because he gets to see Zitao driving, which is always fun for him.

There’s a tiny incident where some asshole cuts them off, probably late for some early morning shift somewhere, and Zitao has to slam the breaks. It sends both of them lurching forward, but luckily, Zitao’s arm automatically comes out to stop Sehun from falling too far as he tries to right the vehicle with his other hand.

He curses under his breath as he fumbles for Sehun’s seatbelt, steering with one hand as he reprimands Sehun through grit teeth.

“I told you to wear the fucking seatbelt, this is why we wear the _fucking seatbelt._ ”

He straps Sehun in and shakes his head at him, still muttering about how Sehun should really listen to him more as he straightens, but Sehun can hear the quiet _“Are you okay?”_ hidden underneath, so he just silently reaches over and pats Zitao’s thigh.

 

They pull up outside a convenience store, and Sehun wrinkles his nose. 

“What do you want to get from _here?”_

Zitao looks back at him, taking the key out of the ignition.

“ _I_ don’t want anything, but I know that you probably do.”

Sehun thinks about how hungry he is.

“Maybe so.”

They walk out fifteen minutes later with a family sized pack of Cheetos, and enough chocolate to feed five people for at least six months.

Sehun pulls out a double chocolate granola bar as Zitao restarts the car, and carefully nibbles at it, because the car is Sehun’s _baby_ (even though it’s technically Zitao’s) and he can’t have crumbs all over it.

He remembers to put his seatbelt on this time.

 

They’re on the road for a good half hour, Sehun feeding Zitao bits of his granola bar every now and then, followed by him hijacking the music console. He even tries to put down the roof, but quickly changes his mind when the cold air first blasts in. 

Halfway through _Love Tonight_ by Zhoumi (The Chinese version, of course. Zitao was very proud of his collab with “Zhoumi-ge!” and Sehun just liked hearing Zitao say _“my secret lover”_ ) they stop outside what looks to be an art store.

Sehun is very confused.

Zitao hops out and opens the door for Sehun, not even waiting for him to gather his wits before he grabs his hand and pulls him out. He slips his fingers between Sehun’s as he closes the car door, and Sehun stares at him slightly panicked, the looming “What if someone sees?” hanging in the air.

Zitao squeezes Sehun’s hand reassuringly.

“Don’t worry, no one usually comes around here. And even if somebody _is_ around, it won’t be someone who knows us.”

Sehun relaxes, and he leans closer into Zitao as they walk into the quiet store.

Zitao’s right, there’s nobody around, except for an old lady at the counter. It seems like he knows exactly what he wants, and Sehun trails behind him as he zips towards the paint section.

Sehun watches as he grabs at least twenty different tubes of something labelled “hypoallergenic water-based paint” and about seven different brushes.

“Wait, do you paint? Have I gone my whole life without knowing that you paint?”

Zitao leads them to the cash register, and smiles at the old lady as he starts to set everything down on the counter.

“Nope.”

“Oh wow, thanks for the clarification, really helped me figure out what’s going on.”

Zitao just pays, and they walk out with their new art supplies.

 

It takes them a little less than an hour to reach home, the work rush contributing to traffic, and Sehun still doesn’t know what’s going on.

When they walk into their room, Zitao sets the bags of food and paint onto the bed. He proceeds to walk towards his closet, and retrieves a roughed up button down, and hands it to Sehun.

“Here, wear this. And leave the top two buttons open.”

Sehun raises an eyebrow at Zitao. The shirt is old, and has seen better days. It’s just slightly larger than Sehun, like most of Zitao’s clothes, and Sehun fails to understand why he’s been handed this particular item of clothing.

“If you wanted me to dress up, you could’ve just ask-“

“Just go put it on.”

Sehun shrugs, and does what he’s told to do. He walks back in with the shirt hanging loosely over him, top two buttons open as per Zitao’s request, fully exposing his collarbones. Zitao has set up the desk so that all the paint tubes are lined up, and there’s a glass slab which Sehun guesses is to be used as a palette. 

Sehun hesitates, and Zitao huffs, pulling Sehun in. He presses a kiss to Sehun’s forehead and smiles, pushing Sehun into the chair in front of them.

“Can I at least know what’s going on now?”

Zitao clicks open a paint tube, and then clicks it shut again.

“You’ve been overworked, you need to relax, you’re bored and you wanted to spend time with me, so I thought I could try this thing I saw on Instagram. I don’t think I’d be particularly good at it, but hey, I can try my best.”

Sehun notices how Zitao plays it off as a spur of the moment thing, but the bookmarked location on Google Maps says something else.

“Uh, I’m not good at explaining this, but you can just put your head back and close your eyes, maybe. Talk about whatever you want to. Or, um, I could put on music if you wanted.”

For the first time since they stepped out today, Zitao sounds unsure, but Sehun trusts him with all his heart, so he simply tilts his head back and closes his eyes.

He starts talking, deciding on not playing any music, and when the first streak of paint touches his skin, he doesn’t flinch. He just opens his eyes in surprise, and looks at Zitao, who’s got a tiny brush in his hand.

Zitao smiles sheepishly, and Sehun could burst right there.

Sehun smiles back, and Zitao starts talking about how he’s almost 99% sure their local Starbucks baristas hate him, and Sehun’s eyes flutter shut again.

They talk about the most random things, all while Zitao draws swirls and pattern into Sehun’s skin. The brush sort of tickles Sehun’s collarbones, but he can’t remember feeling this relaxed in _years_. 

 

Sehun tells Zitao about how he needs a new cap, but his schedule isn’t letting him go get it, and Zitao promptly volunteers to do so.

Zitao tells Sehun that he wants to take him to Namsan again, because apparently three times isn’t enough, and because, “Namsan needs to know that there’s someone prettier than it.”

Zitao keeps one hand on Sehun’s whenever he can, brushing over his knuckles and tracing the same patterns he’s painting.

The brush disappears for a second as Zitao dips it in more paint, but it comes back, starting to drag up in a line from Sehun’s collarbones, creeping up his neck. Sehun opens his eyes, and he almost _sobs,_ because Zitao has his lip caught in between his teeth and he looks so focused, and he’s looking like that at _Sehun._

 

Sehun doesn’t know how long it’s been, but a while later, Zitao straightens, and Sehun can feel him staring at him, as he continues to talk about dance practice. 

Sehun feels Zitao lift his hand up to his lips, and his words catch in his throat as Zitao presses a quick kiss to Sehun’s pulse. 

And then there’s a paintbrush at the same spot, and it swirls around for a while, before Zitao lets Sehun’s arm go and strokes his cheek.

“Done.”

 

Sehun opens his eyes, and even though he was talking non-stop a few minutes ago, he doesn’t know what to say.

“Can I see it?”

Zitao takes Sehun by the hand, and leads him to the mirror, and Sehun hears his breath hitch because _oh._

 

Zitao has painted sunflowers and roses and sprigs of lavender, with vines crossing in and out.

And yeah, maybe the sunflowers are a little bit more orange than yellow, and the lavenders are just various blobs of different shades of purple, and the vines are uneven, but it’s the most beautiful thing Sehun has ever seen on his body, designer clothes and exclusive makeup be damned.

Zitao’s mumbling something about how he wanted to paint waves, but he thought he’d mess it up too much, but he trails off when one of Sehun’s hands traces a vine curling up his neck.

He wraps his arms around Sehun from behind, and Sehun settles against him.

“It’s beautiful,” Sehun gasps, unable to say anything else.

Zitao noses into the nape of his neck, and then he’s whispering, hands tightening around Sehun’s stomach.

“Thank you.”

It shouldn’t be possible to fall more in love with Huang Zitao, but Sehun does it anyway, because Zitao says the words so softly, almost reverently, and Sehun should really be the one thanking him and _god, he loves him so much._

He turns around and buries his face in Zitao’s shoulder, careful not to damage the art on his own skin, even though it’s half dried.

“I love you,” he mumbles against Zitao’s neck, and Zitao kisses the top of his head in response.

Sehun spends the rest of the day staring at the flowers blooming on his skin, and Zitao smiles at him, demanding a kiss on the cheek every now and then as he cleans up.

Eventually, he needs to wash it away, because they have to go out in public, because it’s date night, and Sehun clenches his fists in anticipation of running down the Skyway with Zitao in tow and eating street food that’s probably horrible for them.

He traces the patterns one last time in the shower before they wash away, but he keeps a towel wrapped around his wrist.

They do run down the Skyway together, and they eat the street food, and they laugh in the corner of an alley together, like they always have, like they always do.

But this time it’s different, because Sehun steals a kiss when no one’s watching, and he laughs as loudly as he can without worrying about people staring at him.

This time it’s different, because Sehun has a messy sunflower painted on his wrist.

**Author's Note:**

> oof, i don't know much about art, but body painting always fascinates me, because it's so soft and sweet and intimate. tell me if you liked it! (tell me if you didn't too constructive criticism ftw)


End file.
